The POD Network’s 50th annual conference held in San Diego from November 20-23, 2025 promoted the theme “Writing our Future.” In framing the conference, the organizers drew on the POD Network’s 2024 keynote speaker, James Lang, professor of Practice at the University of Notre Dame’s Kaneb Center for Teaching Excellence, who explored the connections between teaching and writing in the final event last year. “Writing our Future” at this year’s conference asked attendees to leave behind outdated assumptions about teaching and learning while exploring why so much distrust revolves around higher education today. For a historian like me, this was a significant conference theme rooted in time because it asked: How can we consider the past of faculty development while we contemplate its future? 

Bryan Alexander, Ph.D., a senior scholar at Georgetown University who is known internationally as a “futurist,” writer, and speaker, gave this year’s opening keynote. His books include, Academia Next: The Futures of Higher Education, Universities on Fire: Higher Education in the Age of Climate Crisis, and the forthcoming Peak Higher Ed: How to Survive the Emerging Academic Crisis.

Alexander began his talk by discussing the “polycrises” we face in the world today inclusive of armed conflicts, financial insecurity, illiberalism, authoritarianism, the AI revolution, growing inequalities, population decline in key areas, disease acceleration, especially with the decline in beliefs about the efficacy of vaccines, and climate change, to name but a few of the global problems he mentioned.

Alexander then turned to a critical problem academia faces today: the demographic cliff. He noted that since the 1970s societies have taken greater efforts to slow or stop the rise of population to the point where only Pakistan and certain countries in Africa are still enjoying the population boon set in place over the last few centuries. Today, Alexander articulated, the supply of children in first world countries in the K-12 age range is declining meaning there are fewer traditionally aged young adults ready to attend college.  But Alexander also qualified the picture of the demographic cliff. Firstly, he explained that it isn’t the same everywhere, not even in the United States. He noted while the Northeast of the United States and California are experiencing serious decline in high school populations, he offered data to show that the numbers of college age students are rising in the Midwest, West, and Northwest in states like Texas, Oklahoma, and Colorado. He identified Virginia as a state less affected right now than states further north but more impacted than some states in the Midwest. Alexander also qualified his statements by noting that the numbers of adult learners, first generation students, and Latinos in general are rising in terms of college attendance, and he noted significant growth in dual enrollment courses around the nation. He also warned that in the future the demographic cliff will hit states hardest where the greatest impact from climate change is felt, especially as populations are forced to move to safer environments. Virginia’s future with the demographic cliff could thus become more serious as coastal flooding potentially forces out-migration. 

Alexander next explored the possible impacts of AI on higher education. He encouraged the educational developers and thought leaders in the room to provide more ways to support AI literacy with faculty and students and to consider all the possibilities that AI learning can offer.  He noted an annoying trend of discussing faculty as either pro- or anti-AI. He discussed the binary as oversimplified and the truth located somewhere in between. Alexander was cautious, however, in addressing AI especially given his interest in climate change. He noted the billions and billions of dollars flowing into AI companies, but he also reminded the audience of the climate impact resulting from the energy, land, and water needs that are required to build and run the superconductors that power large language models. One AI query takes about ten times the amount of electricity as a simple web search. The question thus becomes, in an era of climate change, is AI usage environmentally sustainable, and if not, what are the potential ramifications?

Alexander’s final comments were about collaboration. He asked the audience to scan the world for the polycrises that exist and use our political capital as intellectuals to work together on local and global solutions. He encouraged academics to do more research on climate change and partner on more sustainability projects. He concluded by saying that as educators we will continue to be asked to do more with less. He noted that faculty have not really been thanked or rewarded for all they did during COVID to keep universities open and afloat, and the AI revolution simply presents more challenges. Alexander indicated that the greatest thing we can do is be patient and kind to each other. “Faculty and staff need love,” he said.  In a room full of faculty developers that included a ZOOM room as well, it was good to hear such words stressing the importance of kindness as a coping strategy for dealing with the complex environment of higher education today and tomorrow.